From my own perusal of the site, it seems like she’ll be reporting on a little bit of everything Decatur, with a particular focus on kid-friendly activities/events. Definitely a topic worth covering in this kid-tropolis of a city!

In that spirit, Decatur Mom recently posted an informative day-by-day list of places around Decatur where kids eat free on weeknights. Click here to check it out!

One of Decatur’s longest standing galleries, Vinson Gallery, is celebrating its 10 year anniversary with a show featuring artists currently in the stable.

See the AJC feature from yesterday for the full story or listen to an in-depth interview below that gallery owner/founder Shawn Vinson gave to The Art Full Life radio show last month. In it, you’ll learn even more about how Shawn started out in the gallery business and what drew him to Decatur Square.

For those that know Decatur quite well, its easy to overlook a neighborhood “video guide”. But this one, produced by DecaturNow for Oakhurst, is actually pretty entertaining and has good production value.

Keeping all of that in mind, here’s an email thread (after the jump) that was passed along to me by Stuart, which claims that Trader Joe’s is looking around Decatur for its next Atlanta opening and expresses Avondale residents’ desire to get a Trader Joe’s somewhere in the “Avondale Estates/Decatur” area.

The Avondale email proposes use of the current Salvation Army store on E. College (who’s lease is up next year) for the next Trader Joe’s site.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that the area 1. hasn’t turned around enough and 2. is too close to the unknown-entity that is the unbuilt Publix store a few blocks down for Trader Joe’s to consider. Just look at its other locations!

But regardless of the validity of these emails, its interesting to see so many residents in the area passionate for a Trader Joe’s. Maybe at some point the great amount of interest by local residents will eventually win out over their continuing hesitancy. In the meantime, I’ll just have to schedule afternoons off from work to get my Mandarin Chicken from the Midtown store. Continue reading “When Publix Just Ain't Enough”

The only real buzz we’ve heard about Decatur’s newest clothing boutique, RockIt, is that its open and its next to Azul. I haven’t really found any other info, so I held off on posting.

Now, thanks to AsianCajuns, we’re beginning to learn a little more. Though its been open a few weeks, the store will have its Grand Opening this Saturday night from 6p-10p (the anime characters above seem happy about it).

Though I haven’t been able to find an official website for the store, they do have a Facebook page that provides a few shots of the store’s interior if you’re interested in getting a visual idea of their selection.

If you stop by on Saturday, you may even run into the AsianCajuns themselves, as they promise to be in attendance.

OK, I’m a few days behind on this news…but to those preservation-minded individuals in the area, its huge.

Back on May 15th, Sonny signed House Bill 851, which increases the historic preservation tax credit from $5,000 per building renovation/rehabilitation project cap to a whopping $100,000 for residential properties and $300,000 for commercial. ALSO, it increases the tax credit to 25% of the total project cost for both residential and commercial. Much better than the old 10% for residential and 20% for commercial!

As always, in order to qualify the building must either be individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places or a contributing structure in a NRHP-listed historic district. To those a little gun shy about local historic districts as of late, don’t confuse a National Register District with a local historic district, as they are completely separate entities. In fact, Decatur’s MAK District is the only historic district in Decatur that is both a local historic district and a National Register district. None of the other local districts have yet to apply for NRHP status. Both of Decatur’s current National Register areas are in Oakhurst. South Candler/Agnes Scott and Winonna Park are the only National Register Districts in Decatur. To see a full list of Decatur properties on the NRHP, click here and search “GA” and “Decatur”. (Not all search results are in the city of Decatur)

Unlike a local historic district, National Register districts exist mainly to provide tax incentives to property owners, along with providing some pseudo-protection in the case that the state or federal government wants to tear down your property (to build a highway or government building, etc…)

If you already own a NRHP property and want to rehab it to receive the tax credit, the final step is getting your renovation plans approved by the National Park Service.

Hopefully this mammoth increase will not only motivate residents to rehab their historic properties, but also create a few more NRHP districts in the area, which get residents learning more about the unique heritage of their neighborhoods.

A good Samaritan recently linked to David’s and my post regarding the Brick Store lease over in the Beer Advocate forums, asking for more info. At first there was only speculation…but then this morning, we got some real, second-hand details about the BSP owners’ plans.

From Firkinhophead…

“According to Dave [BSP co-owner] this will be a separate venture in the vein of cool bar/bistro/beer/food concept (dare we call it a Gastro Pub?). If the lease negotiations go through they will take over July 1.

No word on the East Atlanta location, but from what I have heard getting a liquor license in the City of Atlanta is harder than getting into Augusta Country Club.”